


The Ghost Wolves

by thealphagate_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-04
Updated: 2012-07-04
Packaged: 2019-02-02 11:54:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12726159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thealphagate_archivist/pseuds/thealphagate_archivist
Summary: SG-1 encounter large wolves that are much more than they appear to be





	The Ghost Wolves

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the archivists: this story was originally archived at [The Alpha Gate](https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Alpha_Gate), a Stargate SG-1 archive, which began migration to the AO3 in 2017 when its hosting software, eFiction, was no longer receiving support. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. We e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are this creator and it hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Alpha Gate collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/thealphagate).

Drip …

Drip …

He hurts.

Drip …

Drip …

His eyes open slowly, annoyed by the dripping sound. It’s cold and …

He hurts.

Eyes blink weakly and scan – momentarily uncaring as to where he is or what has happened to make him hurt. He is lying face down - head and one arm dangle over an icy ledge. Everything is blurry and it makes him nauseous to look, but he wants to find the source of the annoying sound.

A drop of blood drips from his forehead and falls … falls … falls into a small pool of ice melt water. The water is pink with his blood in the sunlight. His eyes close again wearily. The annoyance is satisfyingly identified.

But, he … hurrrrts ... .

SGSGSGSGSGGSGSGSGSG

Cold. Pain. 

It hurts to open his eyes. Too bright! He gasps. The pounding in his head is almost overwhelmingly too much. Weak sunlight has sent a shaft of light over his back. Huge slivers of ice glisten like pale blue and aqua diamonds … . Beautiful. His mind has difficulty in finding the word. But, yes: beautiful.

He blinks. The place seems familiar. He is confused. Should he know this place? He looks around and sees the pool of pink water. Now it is mostly red and there is something small in the water. Something … his glasses. He frowns at them, trying to remember why they are important and why he feels pain. There is a white shape that moves; something that instinct tells him he should be alarmed about – but the pain is all-encompassing and his eyes close and he is gone.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

They have gated to a world coming into an ice age. Ice has half destroyed the gold capped pyramid that sits on the edge of a blue spruce like forest. The world has obviously been abandoned for centuries. 

They travel towards the pyramid for almost four hours. But then Teal’c begins to feel that they are being watched. He finds the tracks of large animals and Jack asks his team to be on the lookout.

It is then that Daniel stumbles and nearly falls for the first time. His vision has – twisted. Sam raises her eyebrow at him enquiringly. But Daniel grins and kicks sheepishly at a large pebble on the ancient trail. He remembers vividly how overly protective his team mates have been of him of late. Ever since Nem. He longs for the relaxed camaraderie again – to feel like an equal. He dislikes being treated as the weakest link. As if he didn’t really belong.

Daniel focuses on the ancient trail – but his mind flitters from thought to thought, memory to memory chaotically. Twice he wonders if he should mention what is happening to Jack and each time his mouth clamps over the words and he remembers how much he wants to be treated normally again. 

Again and again he is distracted by memories of other worlds, of languages and peoples and then he remembers dying and ascending … Again he stumbles. Something is very wrong. It is years since the encounter with Nem! He has long been treated as an able part of the team. Again he tries to speak, but the words will not come and he begins to feel afraid. But his mind is not his own now. Soothing thoughts invade him and soon he has forgotten that there is anything to be concerned about. The pyramid is closer now and the gold cap of it glistens almost blindingly despite the weak sunlight. He sees that it is bigger than the pyramid of Khufu and he pulls his camera from his pack. He reaches for some Tylenol as well for the nagging headache that he has developed for some reason.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

It is cold. He tries to move but there is too much pain and his body has stiffened. 

Whiteness. A blur.

His breath catches in his body for a moment. He tries to focus and cannot. But he can identify the wolf that sits beside him. It lifts a massive paw and there is nothing he can do but close his eyes and wait for the killing blow.

It does not come and he struggles to open his eyes again. He is so afraid but despite his fear and the surge of adrenalin his fear causes, he sinks back into unconsciousness.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Wolves. A huge pack of them, maybe thirty or so, grey and white pelted and as quiet as ghosts. They crept up on him as he worked on translating the wall glyphs. They moved without a sound and before he knew it, he was surrounded. Wolves larger than bears and with strange yellow eyes that remind him of the Goa’uld. But there is something odd about some of the wolves. He can see the breath swirling out of the jaws of only some of the wolves. The others – the pure white ones – don’t seem to be breathing. One lifts its head and looks at him with strange intensity and utterly alien eyes and Daniel suddenly feels unreasonably frightened beyond belief or sense.

Running!

Breath whistling in and out. He runs on the edge of the forest, over frozen ground and tree roots, trying not to fall – trying to move faster. He fumbles belatedly at his thigh for his Beretta. There is snarling and something rips at him, flinging him forward. He nearly loses his footing - has lost his weapon. But instinct tells him that to fall is to die. He feels warmth running down his side and risks a glance over his shoulder. They are close - so close. 

He realises too late that he is being herded. Too late! They have steered him away from the rest of his team. They waited until Jacks’ perimeter walk took him to the opposite side of the pyramid. They have deliberately separated him from his team, and they had done it silently. Perfectly. Daniel knows better than to run when animals such as these are around. He should have yelled for help, he should have realised sooner, but it is too late now. Far too late. He has been running for nearly an hour. 

He fumbles suddenly for his radio – confused momentarily as to how he could have forgotten about it. But just as he begins to key it, a blur of white flashes by and the radio is snatched from his hand. 

Oh God.

Run! Run faster! 

A part of him realises that he is behaving uncharacteristically, unnaturally, but the realisation fades away before he can grasp it properly.

A wolf suddenly moves so fast that it easily overtakes him. It runs in huge joyful bounds that stretch its body out into a vision of perfection. It is incredibly beautiful to see. Insanely, he almost wishes he had a camera. But then it stops and sits, panting lazily and watches him veer around it with its strange eyes. Despair fills him. They are playing with him.

He knows they will take him down when they bore of the game. He has to get to the Gate; has to take risks. He veers suddenly onto the ice with his spiked boots. He can feel the surprise in them at his change of direction and he feels a sudden surge of satisfaction. Then he remembers that they have long claws that will give them traction on ice. Long, long claws.

One lets out a new sound, one that has the rest of the pack stopping in their tracks. 

He runs onward for a minute, but the sudden silence has him looking over his shoulder and then slowing and stopping in sheer amazement. He pants heavily; swirls of his own breath make it difficult to see. His legs shake with exhaustion. There is a painful stitch in his side and his jacket is sticky with blood.

The wolves have stopped. All of them have stopped. One lets out a strange yipping sound. They look at him and scent the air, some prowl closer, and he can almost feel their frustration. He blinks at them, watching them through the swirls of white breath panting out of his own body. He sees that some of the wolves are very different. They seem … more frightening that the others. Their eyes are so strange. Terrifying. And he can’t help thinking that they are communicating somehow with each other.

His vision blurs and he is dizzy – nauseatingly so. He stumbles again and remembers that they have been in his mind before. The wolves stare at him with that intensity again.

Again, that commanding yipe from the biggest wolf – the white one. The leader of the pack. But the grey wolves separate from the white ones and Daniel could swear that one of them steps right through the body of one of the white ones. Yet another yipe from the leader of the pack, but hunger seems more powerful today – at least for some of the grey wolves. One, then two and three grey wolves start running toward him again, and this time there is nothing playful about their gait. Daniel turns, and once again he is running.

He wonders in despair if they have finally tired of their game. A white blur sends Daniel sprawling to the ice and one of the grey wolves snarls and snaps at where Daniel had been.

Daniel stumbles to his feet again. Running …. He can hear the panting breath of a wolf. And then the ice cracks beneath them … .

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

The sunlight has moved when he again opens his eyes. Now the ice is a deeper blue/green, and the light has lit some of it into diamonds that stab at his eyes. So beautiful. He wants to touch it - shifts his body slightly to do so. He screams, agony slicing up his left leg and sending hot spikes into his brain. He nearly passes out and makes another harsh sound that echoes back at him and fills his head with more pounding pain. 

He moves inch by careful inch until he is propped up against something. That small distance tells him how badly he is hurt. He is sweating and panting with only that small effort. Broken ribs, dislocated knee and his head hurts. He blinks and squints painfully through poor vision and shafts of stabbing sunlight. He has fallen into a crevace or an ice cavern of some kind and has landed on a tilted ice shelf. Far below he can hear the sounds of running water. He can already see that there is no way for him to climb out. He is in deep trouble.

Growling – deep, menacing growling - very close by.

Make that ‘deeper’ trouble. 

Daniel fights back nausea and the desire to vomit. He moves very slowly and carefully turns his head. There is a white wolf – as big as a large bear on the ice shelf with him. And it is sitting between him and a grey wolf as placidly as a puppy. The grey wolf eyes him with hunger; saliva drips from its mouth. It bends closer with a definite stalking move and Daniel is certain that he is about to die. The white wolf growls a rebuke and the grey one instantly drops into a submissive crouch.

Daniel watches and waits, barely daring to breathe. He can feel the edge of darkness pressing at him but he doesn’t want to pass out again now. What is he doing down here anyway? Where’s Jack? 

From somewhere there is a question asked. Daniel turns his head and tries to focus. But there is no one nearby, just himself and the two wolves. Above him at the edge of the crevace there are more wolves. They are scratching at the ice pushing chunks of it down beside the wolves onto the ice shelf. Daniel tries to see why they are doing this but the white wolf blocks him. It locks eyes with his and the question flares again. ‘What are you?’

Daniel’s vision blurs and shifts and he sees double. With effort he lifts a shaking hand and feels the gash above his ear stretching up and half way over his head. His hair is matted with blood. His head throbs painfully in time with his heartbeat. He vomits over the edge and his head pounds harder. His side hurts too but he cannot remember why. He doesn’t understand what he is doing here. He knows he has a serious head injury, but he doesn’t think he can remain conscious for long no matter how much he wants to….

‘What are you?’

Daniel blinks trying to find the owner of the voice. ‘Jaaack?’

Grey wolf lifts its head and gazes at him as the echoes die away. There is no reply from Jack and Daniel frowns at the wolves. He doesn’t know why he sitting here with them for company. It seems to him a very stupid thing to do.

Daniel finds himself fading away again …

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

It is puzzling. One side of his body is numbingly cold and the other side is almost warm. He opens his eyes to darkness. He has been sleeping in a half propped up position and he can’t figure out where he is. 

The air is bitterly cold and his head throbs painfully. It is difficult to think and already he is tired again. He shifts slightly and the warmth beside him shifts as well.

He freezes in sudden fear, wishing for a light. He wants to know what is lying beside him.

His head aches badly, and it is painful to breathe.

Suddenly, light is forming. Out of nothingness. Out of thin air.

Daniel’s head pounds with his panicked heartbeat.

A white wolf forms out of the light and Daniel’s panic eases as he recognises it. It glows softly lighting the area and Daniel can see the jagged ice of the crevace that he has fallen into. The grey wolf is lying beside him and keeping him warm. It has been eating something. There is a large patch of blood soaked into the ice in front of it. 

Now Daniel cannot hold back his fear. He moves cautiously again hoping to escape the grey wolf before it chooses him for dessert and his feet slip off the edge of the tilted ledge. Pain rips through him and he begins to topple and it is the grey wolf that drags him back from the edge by the front of his jacket. Daniel can smell fetid breath and his eyes widen at the close up view of two inch long incisors. The grey wolf releases its grip and Daniel’s head bounces against the ice. He moans in pain, lying flat on his back and barely with enough strength to breathe. He waits for the wolf to rip at his throat, but instead it settles down next to him, sharing body heat and it watches him through half closed eyes.

White wolf locks eyes with him. ‘We must know little one,’ comes a voice. 

Daniel wants to look away and find the speaker but his eyes won’t move - he can’t move! Not even to blink his eyes. His vision twists. His head throbs into agony as pressure builds inside of his skull. He thinks of Sam and remembers that a Tok’ra once took her as a host. He thinks of Teal’c and remembers his rejection of Apophis. He remembers Oma, and feels recognition as he sees her face in his mind. He remembers dying and ascending – becoming light. He remembers waking up naked upon Viz Uban. He remembers Sha’re, Jack, General Hammond, reading Ancient, finding the Nox, the sarcophagus … and of a sudden there is nothing but intense, all encompasing pain and Daniel can no longer think at all.

There is understanding.

‘You are a fallen one. Not like Anubis, though you are companied by what we saw as a Goa’uld and a Jaffa. We understand now little one. We are sorry for your hurts but we had to be certain of you.’

Daniel is so exhausted that he can barely keep his eyes open. It comes to him then that the white wolf is waiting for something. Daniel feels a hint of curiosity rise within himself about the wolves. Words and images enter his mind but Daniel cannot take it all in. It hurts to have information pushed into his head. The white wolf thinks so differently. Pain drags Daniel down into a spiralling endless tunnel.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

 

Jack watched the white ghost wolf. There was only one of them left now. It stared directly at him. Had been staring at him all night long, and most of the day before. It lay with its head resting upon its two giant front paws and watched him watching it.

‘Damn it,’ cursed Jack for the umpteenth time. He keyed his radio again. ‘Daniel? You’d better be in one piece or so help me, I’m gonna rip you in half and kick your butt all the way to the SGC.’ Jack glares at the ghost wolf, blaming it in part for the totally idiotic comment he had just made.

Carter stirred a little behind him. ‘Sir, it’s my turn on watch. You should get some sleep.’

Jack lowered his weapon slightly but he didn’t click on the safety. He settled his ray-bans back over his eyes as the first light of dawn lit up the ice outside the pyramid into instant too-brightness. ‘I’ll sleep after we find Daniel, Major.’

She shuffled forward bringing herself up to sit beside him and glared out at the ice and at the ghost wolf with barely restrained patience. ‘He’ll be alright sir.’

Jack glanced at her. ‘Somehow I don’t think Daniel is fast enough to outrun a pack of hungry wolves,’ he said with a touch more sarcasm than was needed. He took a breath and tried to reign in his own frustration and worry. ‘How’s the shoulder?’

Carter grimaced and her shoulder twitched. There were blood covered holes in her white jacket where the wolf had bitten her when she’d gotten a little too far away from the pyramid entrance for its liking. ‘It’s fine. Actually that’s partly the reason why I think Daniel is okay, sir. That ghost … wolf … whatever …thing is huge. By rights, I should have lost my arm completely.’

‘I agree,’ added Teal’c. ‘These creatures could easily have killed us at any time, O’Neill. These are not simple animals. There is reasoning behind their actions. For the time being we are simply being forced to remain here.’

‘Yeah, but for how long?’ muttered Jack. He’d come to the same conclusion himself. The ghosts wouldn’t attack unless they stepped too far from the entrance. Jack rubbed the lump on the back of his head ruefully. He’d pumped half a clip of ammo into one of the wolf ghosts and it hadn’t even blinked. In fact the bullets had passed right through the creature without leaving any damage at all and it had just stood and watched him. But when he’d taken a few steps towards the forest, it had swatted him into the pyramid. Jack didn’t know what to do to protect his team from something that they couldn’t hurt but that could certainly do them damage. Jack glanced back at Teal’c. ‘How’s your back, ‘T?’

‘I’m sufficiently recovered O’Neill,’ said Teal’c, looking away.

Yeah right, thought Jack. Teal’c had long deep claw marks stretching from his shoulder right down to his hip. The guy had to be hurting.

‘Sir, the wolf is gone.’

Jack’s head snapped back around and he straightened stiffened legs slowly. He stepped out into the sunlight cautiously, checking right and left. There was nothing – no sign of the wolf ghosts at all.

‘Looks like house arrest is over with,’ murmured Jack. ‘Let’s go find Daniel, kids.’

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Daniel struggles to open leaden eyes. He is snuggled against the warm grey wolf. He lifts his head and his vision blurs and splits, doubles and shifts nauseatingly. He straightens painfully and dry heaves to the side and chokes on a cry of pain as his ribs protest the action and his head pounds with sudden blinding pain. Exhausted, he lies still, bracing ribs with his gloved hand. He is too weak and cold to move now and he knows that he is fading … perhaps dying. He doesn’t want to die alone in this cold place.

The wolves at the edge of the crevace paw at the ice over and over sending chunks of it into the crevace. Some of it lands in a growing mound and some of it rolls down and strikes Daniel or the grey wolf on the tilted shelf or it falls into the pool of ice melt below. The grey wolf looks at him with tolerant eyes, and Daniel understands that there is a truce between them. It licks at the ice. Daniel watches and because he is thirsty he sucks on small pieces of the ice chunks that have rolled close to him. Jack would be angry with him for doing it. It’s not clean water. He thinks of purification tablets and frowns at the chunk of ice he is sucking on. How does one go about purifying a chunk of ice with a tablet?

Daniel frowns in confusion. Jack should be here with him shouldn’t he? Where was Jack? Daniel shifts a little. He wants to find Jack, but pain burns through his body and he falls back against the grey wolf. It stiffens momentarily beside him and then relaxes again. For a time they are quiet, simply sharing body heat and waiting. A twig caught in the wolf fur scratches against Daniels hand and he absently works it free, stroking the warm fur smooth again. The grey wolf watches him for a moment and then goes back to licking at the ice.

The white wolf shakes its head a little. The grey wolf blinks at the white one. They seem somehow to be communicating. The grey wolf shifts and nuzzles at Daniel’s body.

Daniel doesn’t have the strength to do anything but moan as he is moved. The grey wolf settles beside him again and Daniel’s numbingly cold side is now being warmed. Daniel murmurs an Abydonian word of thanks. He lifts a shaking hand and pets gently at the grey wolf.

He dozes only to be woken when the grey wolf shifts beside him again. He wishes it would go away. He wants to sleep. It turns its head and gazes at him and then nudges his hand. Daniel knows what it wants. He works some more twigs and burs free and strokes the warm pelt smooth. The grey wolf nuzzles closer and closes its eyes. Daniel closes his eyes too. There is nothing else to do. Daniel wonders as he closes his eyes if he will wake again. He doesn’t want to die alone. He wonders where Jack is and Sam and Teal’c and Sha’re, but he is too tired to dwell on the problem for long.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Teal’c took point. He was following Daniel Jackson’s trail with intense concentration. He hid his concern but he feared what they would find at the end of the trail. It was a fear shared by his team mates. They were uncharacteristically quiet. 

Teal’c paused and scooped up Daniel Jackson’s beretta. 

‘What you got there, ‘T?’ murmured Jack.

Teal’c held out the evidence and peered at the trail ahead as Jack opened up the beretta and checked the firing chamber. ‘He didn’t fire a single shot.’

Sam caught up with them and frowned worriedly at the beretta. She scanned the trees ahead hoping to see more evidence that Daniel was nearby.

Teal’c stepped forward a few paces and bent to touch his finger into a red splatter on the ground.  
‘Frozen blood,’ he announced and clearly heard Major Carter’s gasp. He straightened and spoke quickly to deny their fears. ‘I do not believe the wolves seek to consume Daniel Jackson. They have forced him to run towards the Gate. Each time Daniel Jackson sought to alter his course they redirected him.’

‘And yet there’s blood,’ said Jack.

‘The wolves are herding Daniel Jackson. They could easily have over taken him yet they simply force him along the path they have chosen. Perhaps the blood is evidence that the wolves reacted to his attempt to defend himself.’ 

Jack keyed his radio again. ‘Daniel? Where the hell are you? If you can hear me key your radio.’

They paused for a long moment waiting for any noise on the radios. Teal’c gave his head a half shake and started following the trail again.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Daniel wakes with difficulty. Again he dry heaves. But this time he has no energy to move his head to the side. There is nothing left in his stomach to come up anyway - for which he is grateful. 

The white wolf nudges him gently and Daniel falls into its eyes. An alien tingle of warmth presses all over him and he watches his own hands move without his willing them. His eyes cannot believe what they are seeing. He has rolled onto the back of the grey wolf and his hands lock around its neck. His legs bend and he would have screamed with the pain had he had control of his own body. Daniel’s knees bend even though one is so swollen it threatens to tear apart the seams of his pants. His feet grip around the ribs of the grey wolf. His fingers clench into the thick fur. Daniel gathers his energy and tries to lift his head but he cannot make his own muscles work.

The body beneath him has shifted. The wolf clambers gingerly upon a three meter pile of freshly broken off ice chunks and it paws at the chunks until it finds a balance point. The wolf crouches. Daniel tries again to lift his head and this time succeeds. The pack are ranged around the edge of the crevace. Muscles bunch in the wolf underneath Daniel. It trembles with gathering energy then it crouches and it leaps incredibly high. Daniel manages a yelp of mingled surprise, pain and fear. Claws scrabble at the edge of the crevace and Daniel thinks that it will fall back again. But there is something – a familiar thing somehow - a shifting or a pushing from behind. The wolf clambers out. 

The other wolves move closer. Some of them lick at the grey wolf. Most are scenting the air and eyeing Daniel with wary eyes.

Daniel stares wide eyed at the wolves. He wants to let go of the grey wolf. His ribs ache terribly. He wants the pain to stop. He feels unconsciousness pull again but the white leader of the pack locks eyes with him.

‘Remain strong youngling. I must share so that my pack understands you. Forgive.’

The white wolf is in his head then and more. There is so much more. Daniel’s memories and personality are peeled wide open to the white wolf – to them all. Every thought and emotion, every pain and triumph. His parents, Sha’re, Apophis and Ra, battles and friendships and splinters of his life and deaths all blending with minds. Wolf minds. Many wolf minds taking his life and thoughts. Daniel whimpers and loses himself to the pounding pain and splintering of his mind.

He feels the cold of the ice beneath his many paws and the curiosity of many strange minds. Wolf minds with wolf thoughts of hunting prey and scenting and pack play and warm blood and mating and cubs and watching and guarding and of shared minds and the genetic shared memory of ages, of hunger and filled bellies and running. He sees the memory of a pyramid with a ship upon it and of the wolves hunting Goa’uld. He sees and feels as many of the wolves are lost to the battle – each mind a disappearing splinter as is his own, until there is a numbness of loss and pain. 

More of Daniel’s mind splinters into pieces and he shares multiple thoughts with their many minds in a chaotic, confusing blending that he cannot understand. A tiny part of him recognises that this is unnatural for him. Human minds are singular and solitary and this splintering sharing of minds is too much for him to cope with. The realisation is fleeting though and shatters apart with the rest of his mind as everything – all of him - is shared.

He feels the disapproval of some of the wolf minds fading as they share his memories.

A thought dominates and demands attention. He feels regret from the wolf that clawed away his weapon and some of his skin. It had hurt him deliberately – tired of pursuing prey that the leader insisted they not eat. It had been defiant as many of the grey wolves had been. ‘The white wolves do not feel hunger as the grey wolves do,’ whispered a thought into Daniel.

Daniel blinked at a younger grey wolf and felt its apology. It stepped forward and touched its nose to his cheek gently, accepting.

More of Daniel’s mind splintered and shared and Daniel couldn’t understand how to feel this way with so many parts of himself amongst so many. It is too much to experience all at once … .

A wolf howled as it felt the fire of Sha’re’s ribbon device in a tent far away …

Another wolf flinches from a knife wound he received when …

Another wolf growled deep and menacingly as it touched the memory of a tiny electrified cage that Daniel had been forced into …

Pain! Overwhelming pain. 

‘Enough! He is not of our kind!’

Daniel blinks unseeingly. There are gentle touches against his cheek and the pain recedes.

The white wolf gathers the splinters of Daniel and places them back where they belong.

Daniel blinks again in complete exhaustion. He is still breathing and feels amazement. For a time he is confused as to whether all of the wolves share his feeling or not but after a long moment he knows that he is almost alone again in his mind. Almost.

Another touch against his cheek. The last of the wolves has accepted him. Daniel has no energy to respond. He feels their understanding / concern / worry / for him and his injuries. Their pack caring / thoughts of den safety / shared body heat / fresh meat for him / water to lap at / his safety / comfort / licking / guarding / cleaning of his wounds …

The white wolf looks into him again. ‘You are accepted Daniel Jackson. You hunt the Goa’uld as do we. Your life is shared amongst the pack and we are now one.’

A second wave of warmth ripples through Daniel’s body and he is surprised when he feels stronger. Somehow he knows that it is a gift of strength given by all of the pack. ‘Thank you,’ he murmurs.

The white wolf shares a fleeting thought and Daniel braces himself as the pack moves out.

The grey wolf lopes effortlessly across the ice. There are thirty wolves running with it and the speed they travel at is unbelievable and so quiet. It seems to Daniel that most of the wolves almost float across the surface. There is a humming of their minds. They share a joy of running together each an individual but part of the whole. It is a wonderful thing – this feeling - or sharing. And he feels a craving for it deep inside of him. To never be alone – even after death. To never be without family or love. Daniel sinks himself into the warmth of it all with a craving and a feeling of need that reaches down to his very soul and he wishes that it would never end. He does not ever want to be alone again – he was been alone for too long.

Each shifting of the massive wolf muscles beneath him sends ripples of pain into Daniel’s broken body. Soon it is difficult to share with the wolves and he realises that they feel his pain. Some instinct makes him shield his sharing of pain. He doesn’t want to hurt his wolf family. The energy gifted to him by the wolves falters and fades quickly then. He is very tired. Cold and tired.

Daniel begins to fade away but a sound draws him back again. 

Teal’c’s staff weapon has shot a warning blast over the heads of the wolves.

Daniel’s body sits itself up. There is a shout. Jack’s shout.

Daniel sees his team. They are staring at him. Daniel can no longer fight the blackness of unconsciousness and he feels his body slide off of the grey wolf.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG  
. 

Jack had seen a lot of incredible stuff in his time. But seeing Daniel riding on the back of a gigantic wolf as if it was a cute little show pony had to be up there with one of the most weirdly amazing sights ever.

‘Daniel?’ Jack shouted, bringing his weapon up.

The whole pack of wolves came to a swift halt not fifty yards away and Jack watched as Daniel sat up straight on the back of the huge grey wolf – and then slid gracelessly to the ground.

For a moment Jack froze where he was. Primal instincts kicked in big time and he had to fight his own body to take that first step forward. Something about a pack of thirty wolves - each as large as a full grown brown bear and each and every one of them powerful enough to take him and his team down without breaking into a sweat - tells him that he should be running for his life.

‘Sir?’ 

That was Carter behind him, sounding more than a little worried about the situation. But Daniel is there lying very, very still where he fell and Jack moved carefully forward, weapon primed and ready in his white knuckled grip. Still, every inch of him wanted to run, but wolves or no wolves he’s going to get his team mate back safely first – despite those huge wolves and their long sharp teeth and even longer claws. No one gets left behind in his rule book even if there are thirty huge wolves standing inches away from Daniel. He just hopes that there is something to their wolfy reasoning. Some intelligence. Something to explain why they’ve brought back one stray archaeologist without eating him. Hell, Daniel would be the first to tell him not to shoot the creatures; that their behaviour showed intelligence. Jack’s finger tightened over the trigger anyway.

The wolves watch him approach for a few moments and then, as if they all received some unheard message at the same moment, they all turned and ran back into the forest – all but one. The lone white wolf settled down on the snow beside Daniel.

Jack looked at it warily for a moment and it looked right back at him and then dropped down submissively and put its head down onto its paws. Jack wasn’t gonna argue with that and took it as an invitation. He moved forward, hearing Carter and Teal’c close behind him and knowing that one of them would be watching his six – not that that is gonna work against these wolfy ghosty things.

Jack scrambled over to Daniel and got a close up look at his friend. ‘Oh shit!’ he cursed feeling the blood drain from his own face. Daniel’s head looked like it had been split right open. Blood had matted Daniel’s hair and stained the thick white jacket down to the chest. Underneath the streaks of blood Daniel’s face was bone white, and his lips were blue, and he was lying there so very still. Jack dropped onto his knees on the icy ground. He ripped off his glove and put his fingers to Daniel’s neck, feeling for a pulse. After a moment he dropped his head to listen at Daniel’s chest. ‘There’s a heartbeat, but it’s pretty damned weak and thready.’

Carter put her weapon down slowly beside her and looked with dismay at Daniels’ head injury. ‘Oh, God sir … ,’ she murmured and then she bit her bottom lip viciously.

Jack didn’t need her to fill in the gaps. Daniel was probably only still alive because he was too damned stubborn to die.

Carter put a shaky hand against the bare skin of his neck. ‘His body temperature is too low, sir. I don’t dare examine him out here in the cold. The shock would be enough to … .’ Carter scanned the area quickly. ‘If we’re going to have any chance at all of saving him we need to get him somewhere warm as quickly as possible.’

‘We will need to move Daniel Jackson most carefully. His left leg seems to be badly misaligned,’ added Teal’c quietly. He had his staff weapon aimed right at the white wolf even though it had proved useless before.

Carter glanced down at Daniel’s leg, as she frantically hauled stuff out of her pack. ‘Yeah, I’m guessing there are other injuries but if we don’t get him warm real fast we’ll lose him to hypothermia.’

Jack bent to help Carter put together the collapsible travois as quickly as he could. ‘I think we’re only about twenty minutes from the Gate, Carter.’

Carter had her bottom lip caught fiercely between her teeth again. She nodded her head, refusing to make eye contact with Jack. ‘I think his best chance is to get him home again as fast as we can, sir. It’d take us that long just to set up a shelter for him, and … well … .’ She shot Jack a glance that spoke volumes. ‘I don’t think a medical evac would be of much help either. He needs extensive surgery ASAP.’

Jack didn’t say anything. He could see that Daniel was way beyond needing field medical treatment. 

They lifted Daniel onto the travois as carefully as possible and wrapped a thermal blanket around his still body. Carter pulled out her sleeping bag as well and tucked it in around him.

The wolf watched them lift the travois and began to follow along beside them.

‘Um, sir?’ said Carter, watching it warily.

Jack shot the wolf an accusing vicious glare before answering: ‘Our bullets don’t hurt it Carter. There’s nothing we can do to stop it going any damn place that it wants to. Best we can hope for is that it gets scared when we open the Gate and runs away.’

‘It appears to be following us,’ said Teal’c, carefully trying not to jostle his unconscious friend in the travois he carried in front of him.

At the front end of the travois, Jack shook his head. ‘It’s following Daniel.’

Teal’c raised his eyebrow and considered the wolf quietly. ‘We cannot allow it to take Daniel Jackson from us again, O’Neill.’

Jack didn’t answer that one. Right now he couldn’t give a damn about the wolf. He’d seen head injuries like Daniel’s too many times before and each and every one of them had ended in either death or severe brain damage. Jack stomped on the thoughts that were gathering in his mind and concentrated instead on moving as quickly as he could back towards the Gate.

‘The wolf is gone again!’ said Carter just as they had the Gate in their sights.

Jackk glanced around quickly. He couldn’t see the damned animal anywhere. ‘I hate when it does that,’ he murmured. ‘Run ahead, Carter and alert the SGC.’

‘Sir,’ said Carter

Jack watched her run faster than he had ever seen her run before – despite her obvious exhaustion. He watched her dial up the Gate and key in the GDO code and then radio a message through. Jack could hear the urgency in her voice – and the fear.

Jack and Teal’c marched up the steps and stepped through the Gate while Carter covered them.

SGSGSGSGSGSG 

General Hammond stood at the observation window and watched as SG-1 carried one of their own through the Gate. He had only seen SG-1 in a state like this one on one other occasion and that had been when they had come through from Nem’s world thinking that they’d just seen Doctor Jackson killed. He didn’t have to see the frantic work of the medical team down stairs to know that Daniel Jackson was in a serious state. He could see it on the faces of his team. He sighed sadly and rubbed at the headache he could feel starting up behind his eyes.

The Gate gave a last little ripple and Hammond instantly looked up with a frown. ‘Close the iris,’ he ordered briskly.

Beside him, Walter slammed his hand down on the iris control. ‘Sir, did you see the Gate ripple just then?’

Hammond scanned the Gate room carefully. There was nothing to see. No additional intruders. The airman operating the Rheetou detector didn’t raise an alarm either. ‘Walter, check the security log. How many life forms were detected coming through the wormhole?’

Walter ran his hands over his keyboard. ‘Only the four life form signatures for SG-1 registered, sir.’ He looked up at the General’s worried expression. ‘Sometimes ripples like that occur when the weather has been particularly bad on the other side, sir.’

Hammond nodded his head slowly and relaxed a little. ‘Lock down the upper levels while someone rechecks the security logs as a precaution and have Sergeant Siler run a diagnostic on the Gate. Keep me informed. I’ll be down in the infirmary.’

‘Yes sir,’ said Walter briskly.

Hammond made his way into the infirmary and slowed down as he spotted Jack, Carter and Teal’c gathered together by an infirmary bed awaiting there post mission medical exams. Major Carter was seated on the bed and had her jacket off and Hammond could see some vicious bruises stretching around a fresh bandage on her upper arm. She didn’t seem to be aware of the wound though. Her eyes were aimed down at the floor.

A more sombre looking team Hammond had never seen. ‘How is he?’ he asked gently. He waved his hand so that the three weary team members stopped before coming to stand at attention and retook their seats by Carter’s infirmary bed.

Jack looked up wearily. ‘Not good sir. Daniel’s been taken in for surgery. He … .’ Jack ran a hand through his hair in a rare show of intense agitation. ‘Frasier was talking brain damage.’

Hammond let out a slow pain filled sigh. Oh Lord. He couldn’t imagine the bright mind of Daniel Jackson lessened by brain damage. It was far worse than he had imagined. He took a steadying breath. ‘I’ll take a preliminary report here then, people. Firstly there was a ripple on the Gate event horizon after your team came through. Can you think of any …’

He paused at the exchange of alarmed glances among the team.

‘We may have an intruder then, sir,’ said Jack.

‘As a precaution, I’ve already asked for a lock down of the upper floors. What are we facing here people?’

‘There were ghost wolves, sir,’ said Carter. ‘They were huge.’

‘Ghost wolves?’ asked Hammond incredulously.

‘They disappeared into thin air at times, sir. They’re the ones that took Daniel and by the time they were done with him he was a mess. One followed us back to the Gate but it had disappeared by the time we arrived,’ said Jack coming slowly off of the chair by the bed.

‘Our weapons had no effect on the creatures,’ added Teal’c, scanning the infirmary carefully.

‘I’m sorry, General I should have thought …’ began Jack.

Hammond held up his hands. ‘You’ve got nothing to apologise for son. Doctor Jackson was severely injured and in need of urgent medical care. You weren’t to know that the creature would sneak through after you. I’m going to put the base on full alert people and get some search teams organised. Then I’ll need a complete report, starting from the beginning.’ 

SGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Sixteen hours later and there had not been much progress. Major Carter was working on another method for detecting the invisible intruder and teams were on the third full scan of each floor for any signs of the intruder. Hammond would have thought that they would have found it by now even if they couldn’t see it. He would have thought that something reportedly as big as a ‘large bear’ would have trouble moving around the often cramped spaces in the SGC without at least disturbing something. But so far there had been no signs whatsoever of any intruder at all. He was beginning to hope that the disturbance at the Gate had only been from the weather on the other side as Walter had suggested.

General Hammond took the time for a coffee in the briefing room as he waited for SG-1 to arrive as ordered. Hammond had a feeling he was going to need something a lot stronger than coffee after this next briefing.

He had sent out a call for the rest of SG-1 to report in and as expected, the first to arrive was Jack O’Neill looking more than a little weary. Hammond poured the man a coffee. By their account, none of the team had slept very much at all over the last three days.

‘Thanks sir,’ said Jack taking the coffee. ‘Has there been any word from the infirmary?’

‘Dr Fraiser has just finished operating and is on her way to make her report now,’ said Hammond gently. He watched as his second in commands shoulders tightened in preparation for what was to come.

Major Carter and Teal’c arrived together and Hammond gathered his paperwork and settled into his chair at the head of the conference table.

Dr Fraiser arrived moments later. She looked emotionally exhausted and had that defeated slump to her shoulders that told of bad news. Hammond found himself bracing himself as well for her report.

‘I’m afraid the news isn’t good,’ she began. She swallowed hard and opened up her file. ‘Dr Jackson had three broken ribs from some sort of significant fall or severe impact. Thankfully none of the ribs managed to puncture into his lung. His left knee had dislocated and somehow relocated itself although there were some torn ligaments received during the injury.’ She took a deep breath. ‘The most severe injury is to his head. There was a severe depressed skull fracture requiring extensive surgery to lift broken pieces of his skull off of his brain. There were signs of elevated intracranial pressure and a hematoma …’

‘Cut to the chase Doc,’ said Jack impatiently. ‘Is he going to be alright?’

Janet shifted uncomfortably. ‘No Colonel,’ she said very gently. ‘I’m afraid that Dr Warner and I both agree. Doctor Jackson’s brain injury was so severe that it’s a miracle he survived for so long at all. If he … . If he ever emerges from the coma that he’s in, that would be a second miracle,’ she paused and swallowed hard before continuing. ‘However there is virtually no chance of him coming out of the coma at all and … and if he did wake up, it is my guess that he would virtually be a vegetable.’

Jack had gone grey in the face. ‘A vegetable?’

Teal’c frowned. ‘I do not understand. Were your surgical efforts in vain, Doctor Fraiser?’

‘He had extensive brain damage that was left untreated for well over a day, Teal’c. His brain swelled up and there was a great deal of haemoraging and … . There’s extensive … .’ She took a deep breath and glanced around at the stricken faces surrounding her. ‘There’s no easy way to say this. Daniel’s brain suffered extensive tissue damage and significant tissue death and there is nothing that we can do to repair it short of a sarcophagus which … .’

Jack’s eyes lit up, ‘A sarcophagus?’

Janet shook her head and continued ‘Which would go against Daniel’s stated wishes, Colonel. If he ever wakes out of the coma I’m afraid he will never be the same person again. I’m going to arrange for his long term care at a specialist facility for … .’ 

‘I don’t care what Daniel’s wishes were,’ said Jack leaning forward to glare at Janet. ‘I’m his commanding officer and if he needs time in a sarcophagus he’s …’

A deep rumpling growl sounded and a ripple shivered momentarily through the room by the briefing room door.

Jack straightened out of his chair.

‘It’s here,’ said Carter also standing.

Teal’c had moved quickly to position himself between the Doctor and the invisible wolf. ‘On the contrary, Major Carter. It was here. It has already escaped.’

 

SGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Jack was dreaming, although he couldn’t remember going to sleep. He stood in an endless dark space. He didn’t know if there was a ceiling above him or walls anywhere close by, let alone if there was a floor beneath him. He couldn’t feel any pressure under his shoes as he walked. And he was walking. That made him stop for a second. Where exactly was he anyway? He was supposed to be searching the SGC for ghost wolves, not sleeping, even if he was exhausted. Why was he dreaming this empty place? And for that matter, where was he going? 

An infirmary bed appeared under a soft invisible spotlight only thirty feet directly in front of him and Jack could make out Daniel’s form in it. Jack hesitated for a second then put the weirdness aside and hurried over to check on his friend.

The white wolf loped around the end of the bed and sat watching him approach.

Jack slowed warily, but didn’t stop.

The wolf tilted his head to the side and looked at him curiously. ‘You are a companion to Daniel Jackson.’

Jack looked around wildly for a second for the voice that seemed to be in his head and all around him all at once. ‘Um … yeah … . Daniel’s my friend.’ Jack could actually feel the puzzlement in the air. He siddled by the Wolf and reached out to take Daniel’s hand into his own.

‘Friendship is such a strange term,’ said the puzzled voice from all around, ‘What your thoughts say is so much more than that.’

Jack smoothed back the hair from Daniel’s forehead. Here, in this dream place, his friend looked like he was sleeping. Daniel had no tubes and monitors attached; no bandages at all. He actually had colour in his cheeks instead of that whiter than the sheets look he had sported and with a head swathed in bandages. Jack frowned. Actually, Jack didn’t remember falling asleep. He must have passed out. He must be dreaming that Daniel was fine and the ghost wolf was talking to him.

‘Daniel Jackson is part of our pack now,’ said the surround sound voice.

‘Yeah? Daniel has a lot of friends,’ said Jack absently. He touched Daniel’s cheek which was cold. He could barely feel the breath coming from Daniel’s mouth against his palm.

‘I will take him to our pack,’ continued the voice.

Jack froze. There was something. Some realisation that what he did or said next would seal Daniel’s fate. Jack looked at the white wolf – into eyes that were as deep and endless as the space around him. ‘You’re one of the Others – you’re an ascended being,’ said Jack.

There was acknowledgement – although nothing was said aloud. ‘It is not only human kind that is able to ascend.’

Jack’s eyes widened with realisation. ‘Oh no, no, no. You’re not ascending Daniel anywhere. He’s ours! He’s been there and done that and he’s not doing it again.’

The white wolf straightened up and took a pace closer. ‘You would prefer that he become this vegetable that your companions spoke of?’

Jack swallowed and looked back at Daniel again. ‘No. God no! Of course not! But … Hell!. Look you’re an ascended being and your rule book says that you’re not supposed to interfere with lowers. Well you interfered and Daniel got hurt. What the hell did you want to go and do that for anyway?’

‘We were curious.’

‘Curious?’ said Jack ‘Curious? Daniel’s a vegetable because you were curious?’

‘The wolf stepped closer still. ‘We scanned all of your minds as you approached. A Goa’uld and a Jaffa we identified quickly. We perceived that you have been touched by the Ancients and nearly chose you for our investigation but we also perceived that Daniel Jackson had existed amongst the ascended. We were most concerned. Anubis is known also to have knowledge of the ascended. We chose to investigate him as the most dangerous possible threat to our world.’

‘You nearly killed Daniel!’

‘It was an unfortunate accident.’

‘Bullshit! You owe Daniel. He had a healthy mind and body before you got to him.’

The white wolf stepped closer and lifted a semi-transparent paw to touch the edge of the bed. ‘That is why I am here.’

‘You’re still not ascending Daniel,’ said Jack firmly, placing himself between the wolf and his friend.

The wolf tilted its head at him. ‘Remember!’ it commanded him sternly.

Jack was suddenly glad that he was sitting down, because the next moment, he wasn’t exactly himself anymore. He was inside Daniel’s mind – though he didn’t know how he knew. He was inside Daniel’s memories.

He remembered Daniel running,; his moment of realisation that the wolves were in his head and leading him away from his team. He remembered Daniel falling into the crevace with the grey wolf and could feel the agony of his injuries. He remembered the confusion and pain, the fear of dying alone, the cold and the slow deterioration of his injured friend.

Then there had been the gift of strength from the wolves and the sharing of his mind. Jack could barely understand how that had worked – the sharing of minds thing. It felt incredible and he wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t been experiencing it with Daniel. It was like having your head in a kaleidoscope. It was like telepathy only so strong that you didn’t have just one mind or body you had the whole wolf pack. It was also completely alien to the human mind and psyche – but he felt Daniel’s feelings of confusion and pain give away to wonder and an intense need for that very sharing. Jack examined that moment more intensely. He knew right down to his toes that that moment was why the ghost wolf was talking to him in the first place.

Jack threw himself into the memory and lived as Daniel for a moment. He nearly gasped with the intensity of feeling that Daniel had felt. His friend wanted so desperately to be loved and be part of a family. He had had no idea that Daniel still felt so alone in his life. There was in Daniel’s mind a clear distinction between ‘friendship’ and ‘family.’ A distinction ground into him from his unhappy life in foster families and his life alone in colleges with friends that came and went and cold empty apartments as distinct from his life with his parents and with Sha’re – with family that were loved wholly and completely and his own, just as he was loved wholly and completely and was theirs. It was a child like view of family in many ways but Daniel had never had a family long enough to know the difference.

But what the wolves had to offer was amazing in Daniel’s mind. It was total sharing. It was full and complete acceptance and sharing of Daniel’s mind, body and soul. There were no secrets amongst the wolves, no hidden thoughts and there was a freedom of comfort, acceptance and love in the sharing that was beyond anything that humans could ever achieve.

Jack blinked and the endless room came back into view again. Damn, that had been intense. Daniel wanted that sharing like he wanted to breathe air. It was so alien though and so … so naked.  
Yeah – he doubted any other human on earth wouldn’t have some dirty secrets that they didn’t want to share. Most humans wanted to keep at least some secrets. But Daniel … .

‘Daniel Jackson is a special being,’ said the wolf.

‘Yeah,’ said Jack. He took a deep breath. ‘He belongs with us. We are his family.’ 

There was an almost human sounding guffaw from the wolf. ‘He craves what we have. We have already accepted him into our pack and we will never allow him to be alone again.’

‘Daniel’s not alone with us,’ began Jack.

The wolf growled. ‘I am of the Others. I know what your future holds. You will leave him alone. You will go elsewhere, as will the others of your pack … your ‘team’. He will be alone – abandoned by you all.’

‘Daniel is part of our family. He’s human and … . Look he’s been ascended – and he’s come back minus his memories. He’s tried that and he got kicked out. He can’t live with you guys.’

‘The wolves do not follow the rules of the humans or of the ascended. Wolves have ever followed their own rules – living or not. We interfere where we see cause to. Our ascended run with our descendants to keep them safe and to teach them. We fight the Goa’uld and those that would harm our kin. We will accept a worthy human into our pack if we so choose.’

‘Yeah but he’s not wolf kind,’ said Jack desperately. ‘He’s human and he’s not built to – what do you call it - ‘share’ your minds. How do you know it won’t drive him nuts?’ 

‘He is clever and adaptable. He will learn and he will be happy with us.’

Jack clenched Daniel’s hand tightly in his own. ‘He’s still human. He can’t run as fast as you or eat raw meat and live in a den. He’s not a wolf for crying out loud.’

‘We know of the needs of your kind. We already love him well and shall never let him know a moment without such. We will care for him.’

‘No – you can’t have him. We need Daniel. We’re fighting the Goa’uld and the replicators and Daniel is needed here. He’s already saved the whole damned planet from being destroyed. If you take him away you’ll probably be condemning seven billion people to death. He’s a genius and he thinks outside the box and …’

‘Yes, he has served human kind well. Does he not deserve peace and contentment? Does he not deserve to have his deepest wish fulfilled?’

‘No-one deserves it more than Daniel. But you can’t escape the fact that he’s not a wolf. Somewhere along the line he’s gonna need people again, I mean what are you gonna do if his boots wear out on that icy planet of yours?’

The wolf looked at him.

‘Alright already! I know I’m scrapping the barrel. Look, I would miss him if you took him. Whether he believes it or not he is part of my family. I will always care about him no matter where I end up or where he ends up in whatever future you see ahead, and I’m sure that Carter and Teal’c would say the same.’

The wolf regarded him gravely. ‘You are telling me what you should have told him.’

Jack sighed. ‘I’ve never been too good at that sort of thing.’

‘You miss a great deal because you are not honest with others,’ the wolf turned its head and regarded Daniel. ‘Ultimately it will be his decision, do you not agree?’

Jack wanted to reply but around him the room brightened and Jack felt a wave of dizziness shudder through his whole body as everything faded away again.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Dreams. Dreams fill Daniel’s mind as he fades in and out like a tide. He is unable to capture one dream for long and like the waves on a storm tossed ocean each dream sheds itself and recedes only to be replaced by another …

Loping across the snow feeling his paws barely touch the ground with his speed. A staff blast lights the tree before him and he angles away with a subtle shift of muscles. The others in the pack fall upon the Jaffa. Satisfaction is shared. The trap they have laid has worked perfectly.

##

The child services lady, Mrs Hend, has lost his paperwork again. Daniel peers over the front counter of what is supposed to be his new school – except that they don’t know a thing about him. He’s not supposed to be in second grade, he’s already taken the exams for sixth grade. Daniel sighs and begins yet another assessment exam to place him in a class. This time he lies about his age and pretends he’s four years older. He hates being thought of as the too smart baby of the class.

##

The deer like animal ran well. But the pack cornered it and soon made the kill. It’s warm blood coats the ground and the living leaders of the pack take their share. There is warmth and comfort shared among them all. The younglings are impatient but they need to know the rules of discipline as do all the pack. They eye the red meat with longing and hunger and begin a game of tumble as they wait. 

##

Carter is working on her generator and Daniel can see the frown of concentration on her face. He puts the coffee down beside her and she murmurs an automatic thanks and glances up at him. In seconds she’s showing him the progress she’s made as excitedly as he had shown her what he had learned earlier in his own office. He smiles and the warmth of friendship fills his body as he concentrates on her technobabble. 

##

The death of the oldest female of the pack is shared by all and it is the youngest that begins to howl out a mourning call. A warning to all that hear that a wolf of age and bearing is ascending and will watch over all be it ill or good. The pack feels comfort as they feel her essence touch each of them as she takes her higher form. She is beautiful and strong once again and the mourning howl changes to one of excitement and an expression of love.

##

Christmas, with just the four of them at Jack’s log cabin, was perfect in every way. Daniel watched the snow float down through the frosted windows and picked up the last pile of presents from under the tree that he had to give. He handed the first of them to Jack. ‘Merry Christmas, Jack. I hope you like it.’

Jack gave him a grin and settled down on his sofa. ‘You already gave me a gift, Daniel.’ 

Daniel put the other presents down carefully beside him and sipped at his egg nog and said nothing.

## 

The pups were restless in the den as the snow fell outside. They played games of tumble and capture over the backs of their dozing elders. The leader of the pack watched them with indulgent eyes. The littlest pup’s mind opened finally like a flower and all of the wolves paused to look at it as it froze in wonder. 

‘Hello little one,’ said the leader of the pack. 

‘This is it? I’m open? I can share?’ 

‘Your mind is one with the pack, little one.’

‘Oh,oh this is so … wonderful!’ 

The little ones mind expanded and filled all of them and his delight and wonder were matched by theirs at the sharing. Once again the leader of the pack felt his own mind shiver with the wonder of a new life and mind to love and cherish.

 

##

Jack was like a ten year old unwrapping his gift with an impatient rip of paper. He shot Daniel a delighted grin at the framed gift and Daniel felt a warm tingle climb up through his whole body at Jack’s smile – at Sam trying to see over Jack’s shoulder and Teal’c’s rare smile at the team charcoal and pencil drawing he had personally sketched. The fire crackled in the fire place sending welcome warmth through the room but the warmth he felt from his friends as they gathered around him and Jack was far better. 

‘This is amazing, Daniel,’ said Sam. ‘You’ve got our eyes perfectly.’

‘I did not realise that you were such a talented artist, Daniel Jackson.’

‘Well then, I’m glad I made some team pictures for you two as well,’ said Daniel. He watched with delight as Sam and Teal’c exchanged pleased smiles and each enthusiastically accepted the last of the presents he had to give them for Christmas. 

##

The tusked keshak was easily three times the size of the pup. But still the pup held on, sinking sharp teeth into the artery of its foe. The grey wolf watched with pride as the youngest of their hunting pack made its first kill for the pack. He shared the moment with the others and the pup squirmed with delight at the praise it received from them all.

##

‘Oh, I love it Daniel!’ said Sam. She bent over the framed picture examining it carefully and her smile of delight grew brighter.

‘This is a gift I shall cherish all of my life long, Daniel Jackson,’ said Teal’c and his smile matched Sam’s.

‘Daniel, you’ve outdone us all,’ said Jack, standing to pat Daniel on his shoulder. ‘I don’t think any gifts are ever gonna top these ones.’

Daniel smiled at Jack over Sam’s shoulder as she gave him a tight exuberant hug. 

‘Actually Jack, this moment sort of tops any for me …’

##

‘Youngling, I have begun the healing of your injuries. You have options ahead of you. You may choose to rejoin your ‘friends’ or you may choose to rejoin our pack. Think carefully.’

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Daniel reached past the dreams towards the glimmer of light – even as the glimmer of light seemed to reach towards him. He found himself in infirmary scrubs with bare feet standing with shaky legs on nothing that felt solid. Automatically he reached out to catch himself on something, but somehow he wasn’t falling. He stumbled forward a little, still feeling nothing beneath his feet and wondered if he could sit down somewhere before his rubbery legs gave out on him and his pounding headache killed him stone dead. 

The white wolf materialised before him and sat upon its haunches.

‘Oh …. crap,’ said Daniel momentarily confused. He’d thought he had only dreamed about the wolves and the crevace thing. Actually it had mostly been a nightmare involving lots of pain and lots of cold and glimpses of beautiful ice formations and wolves.

‘Your memory is damaged,’ murmured the wolf. ‘I am indeed real.’

Daniel sighed a little and looked around himself. He was tired – very tired indeed. The infirmary bed materialised beneath him just as Daniel found himself beginning to collapse. Daniel landed with a soft bounce upon the cool sheets and lay still, suddenly exhausted. 

‘Sleep a little longer youngling,’ said the wolf. ‘When you awaken again your thoughts and body will be stronger.’

Daniel wanted to say something; acknowledged to himself that it would be polite to say something to the talking wolf that wasn’t a nightmare after all. He needed to know things like where the hell he was and what had happened but he was so tired and he was asleep again before he could get his mouth to work.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Daniel opened his eyes to see the white wolf only a foot or two away. Its enormous head was level with his own and it blinked its yellow eyes at him slowly. ‘How do you feel, youngling?’

Daniel blinked back a few times before he got himself together enough to answer. ‘I, ah … . Okay, I guess.’ In the back of his mind he amendment the statement: ‘I have a monster sized headache though.’ He glanced around seeing nothing beyond the infirmary bed but the wolf and darkness. 

‘You were most grievously injured youngling. We had thought perhaps that your healers could treat such injuries but alas, they could not.’ 

Daniel blinked again. The wolf had picked up his amended thoughts. He had to remember that there was no hiding anything with this sort of telepathic communication – and that it actually worked both ways. He was getting imagery right out of the wolf mind. It was focussed upon human hands and their wondrous dexterity. Daniel experienced the wolf thoughts and feelings as it remembered how useful human hands seemed to be to the wolf.

Daniel began to furrow his brow in a frown but the action hurt way too much. Instead he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the infirmary bed. The wolf straightened and Daniel found himself drawing in a slightly alarmed gasp of breath at the sheer immense size of the wolf. A wolf that he was talking to like a person and … . Hadn’t the wolf just said something that he should be worried about? Something really important? Daniel sighed in defeat. It was so damned hard to focus. He rubbed gingerly at his head. 

‘Are you well enough, Daniel?’

Daniel gave a half nod of his head, finding that even that small motion caused him considerable pain. ‘Where exactly are we?’

The wolf tilted its head slightly and regarded him with assessing eyes. ‘We are between moments. Perhaps you should sleep for a time longer. You have an important decision to make youngling and you must make that decision with a clear mind.’

Daniel began to shake his head and stopped that movement before it hurt too much. ‘No, I’m fine. I’d really like to know what’s going on.’

The wolf studied him intently for a long moment before nodding its head slowly just once. ‘Very well. Your injury has divided your future path youngling. You have two options. You may choose to be healed fully of your injury and return to your human ‘friends’, or you may come with me. Do you recall sharing and your acceptance into our pack?’

As if the words had opened a book inside of Daniel’s mind he recalled the sharing as clearly as if it had just occurred. ‘Oh … I … . That was the most … amazing … . That was glorious!’ 

The wolf inclined its head slightly in acknowledgement of the compliment. ‘Were you to choose to rejoin our pack, you would share for all of the rest of your days and then beyond into your ascended life. This gift has only been offered once to another not of our kind in all of the remembered history of our kind. But all of my pack, living or not, agree that you are most worthy of the gift.’ The wolf stepped closer and nuzzled gently at Daniel’s hand. ‘There is no word for ‘loneliness’ amongst our kind, Daniel Jackson.’ 

Daniel drew in a slow breath. He yearned for the sharing. It was a stronger need than he had felt for anything in his life before. He understood that it would be a bonding of his mind, his body, heart and soul. A complete sharing of everything that he was and … . He had never realised exactly how much he hated being alone in his life until this moment – when there was a chance to be loved and cherished every single moment – despite his flaws and faults and … . ‘I want it so badly,’ he murmured.

The wolf nuzzled his hand gently once again. ‘I can offer a glimpse of your life in both futures if you would like. It would be best to know fully what both paths may offer.’

Daniel nodded his head slightly. 

The wolf leaned closer and Daniel found himself lost within its bottomless gaze … .

The pack travelled together moving silently through the deepest and darkest parts of the woods. Daniel rode upon the grey that had shared the crevace with him once all of those years ago. Most often he rode upon his back in preference to any of the others. Somehow it was easier to balance upon Grey’s broad back.

‘I compensate,’ murmured Grey’s amused thought idly in answer to Daniel’s own idle thoughts.

‘Otherwise you would be falling amongst the tree roots many times,’ giggled Chilly the cream coloured yearling that pranced excitedly ahead. ‘Many, many times!’

‘I’m doing pretty well considering,’ replied Daniel, and he fed the image of a saddle into his thoughts.

‘Oh yucky!’ squealed Chilly, and she paused with her paws upon a fallen log to give Daniel a wide eyed horrified stare.

‘Softly!’ admonished Chilly’s elder sister from somewhere behind them. ‘Or all the woods creatures will hear you!’

‘But did you see? Those saddley things that tie you with straps and the dried hide of dead things!’

Daniel chuckled. ‘No-one on my world used saddles on wolves, Chilly. They were mostly for horses and camels.’ Daniel brought up the images of both animals complete with saddles into his mind.

‘We’ve arrived,’ murmured Grey slowing his easy lope at last.

Daniel swung his leg over Greys back and dropped lithely to the ground. He patted Grey affectionately in thanks.

Grey gave him a passing affectionate lick. ‘I hope you will share more memories of the creatures of your world this night Daniel.’

Chilly pranced around Daniel as they moved into the cave. ‘Elder says this cave will be wonderful for you in the winters. There are hot springs inside and Elder has brought more supplies for you through the Gateway.’

Daniel smoothed Chilly’s fur and couldn’t help broadcasting the discomfort he felt at having to be pampered like this. The pack paused. Each and every one of them and Daniel was nearly overwhelmed by the wave of love and tenderness that they Shared for him so completely and fully. 

‘There is nothing of ‘pampering’ our Daniel.’ admonished Elder gently. The pack cares for each and all be they lame, young, old, alive or dead. Or even human. We have always done so.’

‘Always!’ repeated a voice. Daniel turned to see the glowing form of one of the ascended wolves.

Daniel breathed deeply and smiled into his thoughts as he felt the feelings and thoughts that told him how much a precious part of this family he was. His wolf family. And once again he knew that there was nowhere in the universe that he would rather be.’

Daniel gasped and fell back upon the bed. He closed his eyes tightly on the memory he had been given, trying to lock it into his mind, trying to remember it all. And especially on the feeling of love and acceptance that had so very nearly overwhelmed him. God, how he yearned for that feeling. But it had always been there in that future memory. There had always been a sense of love and belonging shared amongst the family for the Daniel from his possible future. That family love feeling was shared moment by moment along with every thought and feeling amongst the pack. 

‘You would love your life amongst our pack well, Daniel. Do you see?’ murmured the wolf.

‘I see it,’ said Daniel turning to look at the white wolf.

‘And now your future with your friends.’

Daniel closed the door of his apartment without bothering to turn the lights on. 

Jack was gone. 

The tightness in Daniel’s chest felt almost like when he’d had pneumonia or like a heart attack waiting to happen. It was so amazingly, surprisingly painful.

But he’d known that it was coming. 

Daniel remembered Jack’s words from when he’d taken that first step away from SG-1. ‘I’ve spent my whole life sticking it to the man. And now I’m gonna be the man,’ he’d said. Daniel remembered wanting to tell Jack that he couldn’t leave SG-1 – couldn’t break apart their family. Jack had always said that SG-1 was like family. 

But there had been that wall that had built up between them over the years. And there were Jack’s bad knees and Jack’s future to think about and Daniel knew he couldn’t be selfish. Jack couldn’t take the physical demands of a front line team for ever. Facts were facts – but still Daniel had to fight himself not to beg Jack to stay on SG-1 … . Not to break the ‘family’ apart. He should have stepped back then and analysed his feelings.

And now Jack was gone. He’d taken another step away from them and it was like by making the decision to take that Washington job, he’d exploded SG-1 altogether. Sam was going to work out of Area 51 permanently. Teal’c was off world, building a Jaffa nation and he … Well, he’d been offered a place at Atlantis in a whole other galaxy. 

Daniel blinked and found that he had sat himself down against his own front door without even realising it. His arms wrapped around himself and he shivered. It surprised him how much it hurt. Somehow he’d thought SG-1 would last forever. Somehow he’d hung too much onto the words ‘SG-1 are like family’ that Jack had said and Sam had said and even Teal’c had said in his own way over the years. They’d all said it at one time or another – and he’d believed it. He’d clung to it. He’d been naïve and stupid and he’d always been too busy to sort things out in his head about it. SG-1 wasn’t family. It was a job like any other job. People got promoted. People moved on. He needed to suck it up and pull himself together. He could be alone again. He’d done that almost all of his life long. He just needed to remember that when someone said ‘family’ they didn’t always mean it the way he wanted it to mean.

Daniel pulled himself up off of the floor and fumbled for the lights. He didn’t want to think about SG-1 anymore or the meaning of ‘family’. It was over and he had to move on. In the morning he’d start the process for accepting the position at Atlantis. 

Daniel came back to himself lying on the infirmary bed to find a tear trickling down his temple. He let out a pained half sob.

‘I am sorry, Daniel, I did not mean to cause you such pain.’ The white wolf nuzzled his chest softly.

‘I … They … .’ Daniel swallowed the lump of pain in his throat.

‘You need to rest youngling Daniel. I have taxed your mind and heart overly much for now.’

Daniel closed his eyes on his tears and tumbled gratefully into the sleep that waited for him.

SGSGSGSGSGSG

Daniel fell deeply into a morass of dreams and memories. Vaguely he remembered that Shifu had once told him that dreams teach but the rest of the conversation floated away to be replaced by other disjointed dreams and jumbled memories.

He remembered coming back after his first ascension on Vis Uban. A man with no past. No memories. Nothing. He remembered how lost he had felt – how afraid. He had felt like a walking question mark and it had taken months before he could stand the touch of another person without jumping or feeling like they might be about to hurt him. 

Of course it had led to speculation amongst the people who had taken him in on Vis Uban. Those sympathetic to him thought he might have escaped from some terrible masters – that he might even have been forced to be a body slave or some such to make him so fearful of being touched. 

The unsympathetic ones – the ones who had named him Aroum, ‘the naked one’ had said it was more likely that he was an escaped prisoner, used to beatings and wary of them and that he had somehow deliberately appeared naked and without memory so that there would be no way to identify him. His dreams back then had been terrifying. He’d wake up shaking and wet with his own sweat and always wondering which of the villagers were right about him. He’d been determined to make a new life for himself amongst the villagers, one that was good and peaceful and involved nothing of nightmares.

Then one of the SGC teams had found him and he had been afraid of losing that tentative hold on his newly formed identity. Afraid to go back to being a walking question mark without history or meaning to his existence. It had been Jack and Sam’s gentle urging that had drawn him toward another identity – one that Sam had said he would be proud to know. 

The dream drifted a little and Daniel was walking through Jack’s front door ahead of Jack and Sam and Teal’c carrying the bread rolls for the barbeque that Jack was getting ready to hold for him.

‘Teal’c got the ‘welcome back’ sign from Siler and insisted on hanging it up last night,’ said Jack. ‘You’re gonna love the decorations he put up everywhere and just so you know, Daniel, we’ve had the memorial thing for you a couple of times already and I’d appreciate it if we didn’t have it ever again.’

Daniel turned on that last word hearing a faint crack in Jack’s voice. And that one small change in   
Jack’s voice spoke volumes to Daniel about the pain of loss that Jack had gone through. Sam stepped through the door behind him and the half smile on her face turned instantly into a haunted half grimace. 

‘I shall endeavour to be more vigilant in protecting your back, Daniel Jackson,’ added Teal’c with quiet determination and the look he gave would have scared any would be attacker to the other side of the known universe.

Jack was nodding his head and shared a meaningful glance with Sam and Teal’c – a glance that said without words that they would work together to keep Daniel safe from harm. It was a pact that they made together in total silence with that one intense shared glance and the strong feelings they radiated and it was at that moment that Daniel felt like he really belonged with this team – this ‘SG-1’ that he had read mission reports about but didn’t remember being a part of. This team that cared for him so fiercely. It was at that moment that he fully abandoned the identity that he had spent months developing on Vis Uban. ‘I’m … I’m sorry,’ he had murmured to them all and there was a short moment where the pain that these people had shared poured out like a tsunami wave before Jack started calling out directions for setting up the food.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSG

He stood before a facsimilie of a day carved into his mind as solidly as the cover stone being lifted into the air. It was impossible, but still, it was there. And he knew what was coming. He remembered the exact moment the stone had reached the position where the chain had snapped. His heart pounded in his chest as once again he stood helpless before the scenario and heard the screams and the sound of rocks tumbling and he felt the pain once again. All encompassing, shocking pain and disbelief. Loss so vast it was unequalled by anything. 

Sam touched his arm. ‘Daniel, it’s not real,’ she said and there was pain and horror in her eyes for him and this horrific memory of his.

Daniel wanted to shake off her hand and tell her that it was real. It had been real and it would always be real for him but her hand on his arm was so gentle and caring and he wished that she had been there for him when it had actually happened. 

He twisted a little on the sheets shaking the familiar nightmare away. He murmured incoherently and drifted into another dream …

SGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Christmas was over and Daniel wished it wasn’t. They all sat together in Jack’s lounge room and sipped at eggnog together by the colourful lights of Jack’s Christmas tree and the warm crackling heat of the fireplace. Outside the snow continued to fall in white swirls over already heavily laden tree branches and Daniel couldn’t help but think how perfect the day had been.

Sam leaned her head against his shoulder and yawned. ‘I’m not looking forward to stepping out into that snow.’

Jack shook his head. ‘I doubt if you’d get more than fifty meters anyway, Carter. You can have the spare bedroom if you like. I made up the bed as soon as I heard the forecast.’

Daniel leaned back against the sofa and wrapped an arm comfortably around Sam’s shoulders. ‘You know, I can’t remember when I last enjoyed a Christmas as much as this one.’

Teal’c had given one of his warm rare smiles, simply showing his delight at Daniel’s pleasure.

Sam had put her hand into his and given it a gentle squeeze.

Jack had smiled at him. ‘We aim to please,’ he had said – typically snarky, but the smile had been sincere and happy. He settled back and gazed with satisfaction at Daniel’s framed team picture that he had leaned against the wall over the fireplace. ‘I think it would look great right there,’ he murmured.

Daniel smiled, knowing that by giving the drawing pride of place on the wall that Jack really did like it.

They had stayed there until the early hours of the morning, talking quietly and laughing together and all too comfortable and enjoying each others company too much to go to bed. It was the perfect Christmas and Daniel thought he had gotten his wish after all because Christmas had lasted into the next day.

Daniel shifted again on the sheets and opened his eyes. 

A shaved head appeared above him and smiled down at him. ‘Greetings, my Mothers husband.’

Daniel blinked at him feeling the headache building behind his eyes. ‘Shifu?’

Shifu stepped back from the infirmary bed and gazed around the darkened empty space that they were in. ‘The white wolf is not present for this time I have with you. But he will return before long.’

Daniel sat up with difficulty. He looked out beyond his bed into the endless darkness. ‘Shouldn’t there be … I don’t know … walls or something? Even a floor?’ 

Shifu adjusted the brown monks habit that he wore. ‘This is within your mind, Daniel. It is a place that the White wolf has established so that he might communicate with you without the interference of the unascended. It is as unreal as the future.’

Daniel sighed. ‘Shifu, I don’t feel so good.’

‘You stand upon the crossroads of the great path. You may choose to live, to die, or to ascend.’

‘The white wolf. He’s ascended too …’

Shifu bowed his head. ‘There are many lifeforms amongst the ascended. Not all follow the rules that the Others have established. Not all are beyond manipulation either.’

Daniel raised an eyebrow at that and frowned. ‘The white wolf?’

‘He wishes you to choose life amongst the wolves. He has revealed two possible futures that may or may not come to pass as all future events are as fluid as the waters in a river. But he has chosen the best scenario to show to you, if you were to choose the path he wishes you to follow and the worst scenario if you chose to remain with your people.’

‘I wish for Daniel to be happy,’ said the white wolf and Daniel turned his head to see the wolf prowling closer with his teeth bared. ‘I see in his mind his greatest desire and I know that we can fullfill that for him.’

‘I simply wish for my Mother’s husband to choose carefully.’ Shifu bowed his head and a bright beam of light flashed at the end of Daniel’s bed.

‘Hello!’ said a startled voice.

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Jack took a quick startled glance around. Yep, he was back. He couldn’t feel the ground underneath him. There was the white wolf. Daniel was there, minus all the tubes, monitors and equipment but still looking worse for wear on an infirmary bed in the middle of nothing. This time, his dream included Shifu though. Jack snorted loudly at himself. 

Daniel tilted his head inquiringly at him.

Jack shook his head. ‘Usually my dreams include blondes or brunettes of the leggy and gorgeous kind,’ explained Jack. ‘No offence Shifu and ah … .’ Jack coughed and looked away from the wolf. ‘Hey Daniel, you know, I don’t even remember going to sleep.’

‘You’re not dreaming, Jack.’

Jack raised his eyebrows in disbelief, ‘Yeah? Well since I know, you’re currently hooked up to every doohickey in the infirmary – you get better by the way; and I know that there are solid floors and walls in real life, I’ll just keep believing I’m dreaming, if you don’t mind.’

Daniel sighed, and didn’t argue. He lay back onto the infirmary bed and closed his eyes.

Jack stepped a little closer. Daniel – not arguing back - was a dream come true, but his friend was looking worn to a thread, even though he was conscious and so not a vegetable and looking a hell of a lot livelier than the real Daniel was looking, he still looked exhausted and in pain. Odd that. Jack took a more careful look around his ‘dream’. He would have thought his dreams would have put Daniel in better condition than this.

The white wolf padded closer and Jack automatically placed himself between Shifu, Daniel and the the wolf. His hands twitched and groped at pockets looking for a weapon, but he had somehow dreamed himself into what he was supposed to have been wearing before he had fallen asleep. Street clothes were fine ordinarily, but he didn’t have anything to defend himself or Daniel and Shifu except for his car keys. Why couldn’t he dream up combat gear, a P90 or a bazooka even?

‘Daniel Jackson speaks the truth, Colonel O’Neill,’ murmured Shifu. ‘This is not a dream but a moment in time within Daniel Jackson’s mind, a moment that can last as long as the white wolf wishes it too.’

Jack shook his head, ‘There you go, see? In dreams nothing much makes sense. If we we’re really in Daniel’s mind, then you’d still be talking ‘glass half full’ crap and the white wolf there would have no business dictating how long this lasts.’

Shifu gently picked up Daniel’s hand. Daniel had drifted into sleep but turned his head murmuring sleepy Abydonian words. Shifu spoke softly, ‘I’ve been working on communicating better. But you know that the ascended are capable of many wonders, Colonel O’Neill. Why then should it surprise you that the white wolf is within Daniel’s mind.’

Jack opened his mouth to make another snarky comment and closed it with a click of teeth. He was over this dream. He’d had enough of white wolves on that damned planet. He was ready to wake up and check on the real Daniel. And when exactly had he gone to sleep in the first place? Jack pinched himself good and hard on the back of his hand and then twice more when nothing happened. Oh … hell. Maybe he should entertain the possibility that this really was real after all, in which case ‘Shifu, can you help Daniel? He’s been badly hurt.’

Shifu looked pointedly at the white wolf, and Jack knew suddenly that Shifu couldn’t do a thing to help Daniel. The white wolf would stop him. White wolf was still prowling, looking like he wanted to rip out Shifu’s heart actually. Jack took another protective step closer to Shifu. He pinched himself again and looked up to see Shifu watching him curiously. But it was hard to get passed the no floor and walls thing. It was much easier to think of it all as a dream or maybe he’d come into contact with some alien artefact or something. He was definitely not going down the looney tunes road, and it was much simpler to say that he was dreaming again since that was what had happened the last time he’d seen this place, but what with the lack of blondes and the oh so clear stereo sound and vision effects, maybe he had to go along with being in Daniel’s head.

Not a good place to be. Don’t panic, Jack. It could still be a dream. A really vivid dream. Go with the simplest explanation. Except, he had never had such a clear, focussed … nightmare in his entire life. Plus he had tried to wake up – he pinched himself once more really hard just to make sure - since he was almost positive he wasn’t supposed to be asleep in the first place - and nothing was happening.

Shifu watched the white wolf warily.

‘Your kind have sworn off interference on the lower planes,’ said the white wolf. ‘Daniel has all but made his decision. He wishes a life of peace and love with my kind. He wishes never to be abandoned again and we can see to it that he never knows a single moment of loneliness or pain in his life, followed by ascension where he can make a difference, if he so chose. He would follow our ways. In essence – we offer him all that he wishes. You should leave now and take your friend with you.’

Dream or not, this was getting a little too serious. ‘Now, you wait a minute,’ began Jack. ‘Daniel hasn’t made any decisions and as soon as we have a chance to show him the real picture and not some one sided cliché crap existence that you’ve been shoving down his throat then … ,’ Jack blinked and spat out a string of curses - ‘cause now there were two ghost wolves.

The first white wolf stepped sideways out of the way of the larger wolf that was forming out of nothingness, like a cloud taking shape.

Definitely not a dream, thought Jack. No way would he dream a ghost wolf that could look surprised, let alone Shifu and Daniel and the rest of it.

‘Sheyahn,’ murmured the new white wolf and Jack slammed his hands over his ears at the thunderous volume of the new voice.

Jack could see the ghostly fur on the white wolf stand on end. 

‘How dare you give my true name to strangers!’

‘Sheyahn, you must relent.’

‘Who are you?’

‘I am the first,’ came the painfully loud reply.

The white wolf – Sheyahn – stepped back a pace and dropped into a sitting position, as if it had just received a shock.

Jack blinked and looked around to see Shifu’s equally stunned expression and cursed loudly.

Shifu gave him a look. Jack wasn’t sure how to interpret it for a second having never seen the look on Shifu’s face when the kid had been alive. But it was sort of a ‘don’t curse in front of the divine being’ look and suddenly Jack had had enough. If this was a dream, then hell he didn’t care who he offended. If it wasn’t a dream, then he had something to say.

‘Look, I don’t care who the hell you ascended … beings are. This is how it’s going to go down. You,’ Jack stabbed his finger in Sheyahn’s direction. ‘You are going to fix the damage you did to Daniel and let him wake up back as his normal geeky self.’

‘And if this is not what Daniel wishes?’ said Sheyahn.

Jack glared.

‘We are bound by our oath,’ thundered the new white wolf.

Jack spun to glare at the noisy beast and yell at it for interrupting but Shifu beat him to it.

‘Forgive me, devine one,’ said Shifu, stepping passed Jack. ‘What oath do you speak of?’

The darkness around the infirmary bed shifted and fell back and it was all Jack could do to keep himself from throwing up as everything changed around him. He felt his stomach drop down as he became completely weightless and they passed through … some barrier. There was a vast space of … something that Jack knew no human had ever seen before. He had no words to describe it. There were … expressions of intelligence – of life – but there was nothing that he could see. He just knew that he was surrounded by a vast, vast number of life forms of some kind that he could neither see or feel, just sense, on some higher level than his five ordinary senses. There was no colour and yet all the colours in the universe where there at the same moment – and there was no beginning or end to it. Whatever … wherever it was, it just was, and Jack’s brain and body were having a hard time trying not to shut down at the overwhelming sight. The closest his brain could come was to imagine that he was standing in the middle of the space between universes and between life and the next thing beyond life.

Out of the sensory and higher sensory overload that Jack was having, he felt Shifu’s fingers on either side of his head. Jack staggered and sat abruptly on the edge of the more than solid infirmary bed, as his legs decided that standing was no longer an option. He focussed blearily on Daniel’s sleeping and too pale form. It was like relief, seeing Daniel – seeing something that made sense.

Shifu’s worried face came into focus. ‘You should not be here, Colonel. I have temporarily adjusted you so that you will remain sane.’

‘Ahhh … thanks,’ said Jack, proud that he wasn’t babbling like a new born baby. He took a cautious glance around him at the vastness and found that now it looked like a simple room. Like an amphitheatre or a monstrous scale – Roman style with huge columns and marble seats filled with creatures of various shapes and sizes and forms. Some were liquid based and some were gaseous, definitely gaseous. There was a crowd of wolves in the centre of the amphitheatre and Jack recognised the loud voiced white wolf as the leader of the group.

‘We have our freedom, then,’ said the leader sitting on his haunches.

‘As this independence is in the nature of your kind then yes, ascended wolf kind may interfere on the lower planes where they see fit for the benefit of their own kind as long as they draw no attention from the Ori or the Kee’ek or others disassociated from our unity, with one more stipulation.’

The leader wolf tilted his head sideways and his followers turned to watch as an enormous image formed before the wolves.

Jack looked on in awe as he recognised Daniel’s image.

‘This being,’ continued the voice. ‘This human male being of the far distant future. His path must remain undisturbed by your ancestors.’

The leader wolf eyed the image curiously, ‘This human being?’

‘He is a key to the future existence of many of us. His path must remain undisturbed by your ancestors. Do you swear oath?’

Leader eyed the image one more time, locking the human features into his memory and bowed his head. ‘We so swear.’

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Jack knew his mouth was hanging open. The amphitheatre was gone now and the dream place with no walls or floor around a floating infirmary bed was back in place.

Shifu placed his hands on either side of Jack’s head again and Jack blinked at him through a sudden headache. ‘Where the hell…. What was that place?’

Shifu frowned intently at him as if he were looking deeper than just at Jack’s face. ‘That was one of the meetings of Other’s that occurred many millennia ago, he said distractedly. ‘It is where the white wolves broke away from the non-interference rules set down by the Others.’

Jack blinked at him dazedly again. His head was ringing as if he’d been standing beside a bunch of jet engines on full power … for about a week. 

‘Daniel? Daniel’s that important?’ he blabbered.

Shifu’s eyes crinkled with amusement. ‘You have always known this, Colonel. There are an infinite number of life forms that make up the Others. Some monitor dimensions and the infinite threads of possibility, some monitor time lines and although the Others do not interfere with the lowers, they will ensure that some events are not altered. But even in dreams, I should not tell you this. Are you recovered?’

Jack nodded feeling the beginnings of a migrane sized headache, and if he had tried to stand up right then he would have landed flat on the non-existent floor. His eyes snapped over to Daniel’s sleeping pale face, still trying to put together all that he had just learned. ‘That was eons ago wasn’t it?’

‘The Others know what to look for in the streams of time. One or two lowers stand out even over millenia,’ murmured Shifu giving Daniel a fond smile. ‘He was always special.’

‘Return him as he was, Sheyahn,’ thundered the Leader.

Jack winced at the noise, but kept a wary gaze on Sheyahn.

Sheyahn’s head bowed resignedly. ‘As you say, eldest.’ The wolf padded across to the infirmary bed and Jack inched back across the bed as the wolf got right up close and personal with him. ‘You will swear to me, human, that you will care for Daniel.’

Jack glared back. ‘I always do my best to protect Daniel. It’s creatures like you that end up hurting him in the first place, like you have done.’

Sheyahn backed away a little, looking perhaps a little contrite. ‘Then we will repair him.’

SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG

Daniel woke up with a gasp – at least he tried to gasp. There was a tube shoved down his throat, and in moments the alarms were going off all around the infirmary bed that he was in.

He knew the drill. He wasn’t chocking – it was a breathing tube down his throat but … damn, what was it doing down there. His chest felt just fine. In moments Janet’s familiar but blurry shape was bent over him and helping him to get rid of the tube. 

He coughed and managed to swallow as the thing finally came out. He blinked up at Janet - who was not looking quite right. Normally, once he woke up in the infirmary, she’d be reassuring and calmly professional. This time she just looked plain stunned - floored even. Her mouth was hanging open.

Daniel took a quick scan of the infirmary room – it was an isolation room – usually kept for really sick patients. Daniel frowned worriedly, was he sick? He didn’t feel sick – except for feeling a serious need for coffee. Teal’c was there standing next to the visitors chair and even he looked rather stunned – even if that was just a raised eyebrow. For Teal’c that was stunned.

‘Hey Teal’c, what …?’

Jack came barrelling into the room closely followed by Sam and then General Hammond was there as well and now Daniel was really worried. ‘Hey guys, would someone tell me what’s going on?’

There was a silence and that stunned look spread like a virus right around the room.

Daniel straightened himself into a sitting position – something that was a little difficult what with all the electrodes, IV tubes and what not. He did a quick body scan, wriggling toes and squirming, but everything seemed to be fine; no injuries that twinged or hurt. He lifted the arm that was tube free and reached up and found the thick bandages swathed around his forehead and up over the top of his head. ‘Well that’s weird.’

Jack grinned at him. A delighted relieved sort of grin and Daniel’s worry meter was still going up.  
‘What on earth has been happening?’

‘You don’t remember?’ spluttered Janet. ‘What exactly is the last thing that you do remember, Daniel? No, no, don’t answer that, I ah... I should check all of your vitals first and your head wound.’

‘Head wound? Janet, I’m fine. I think. I mean, what’s happened? Why am I in the infirmary? I don’t feel hurt or anything. I don’t even have a headache.’

‘I don’t understand, Doctor,’ said General Hammond. ‘You told me that Doctor Jackson had serious and permanent brain damage.’

‘Brain damage?’ Daniel sat bolt upright knocking a part of the bandaging that Janet was unwinding free and feeling it flop into his face.

‘And you Colonel,’ continued the General. ‘How exactly did you know that we had to come down to Doctor Jackson’s room?’

‘I think I can explain, General,’ said Jack. ‘Remember when I sort of dozed off in the middle of our meeting ? Well, I wasn’t napping and your reports are still absolutely riveting sir, but I kinda have an image of Shifu in here,’ said Jack tapping at his head. 

‘Shifu?’ said Sam. ‘As in Shar’re’s son? Is that what’s floating around the SGC? Shifu, I mean. He’s come here to fix Daniel’s wounds. No wonder we couldn’t catch him.’

‘Actually I think it’s that ghostie thing that’s floating around, or maybe the ghost wolf and Shifu,’ said Jack.

‘There are two non-authorised intruders on the base?’ spluttered General Hammond.

‘Maybe,’ said Jack. ‘Shifu said … some things. Basically he got that ghost wolfie thing to fix Daniel instead of adopting him and taking him back to be part of their pack.’ 

Now Daniel was really confused. ‘Um … ghost wolfie thing? Jack, what are you talking about?’

Sam came around the bed and smiled at him with a look of wonder. ‘You’re back to normal Daniel, with no brain damage at all.’

Daniel stared at her while Janet unwound the last of the bandages around his head.

‘That’s unbelievable,’ Janet spluttered.

‘What?’ came the question from Daniel, Jack, Sam, Teal’c and General Hammond simultaneously.

‘His hair has grown back, overnight. I can’t even see a scar. I operated there just yesterday. We had to shave almost all of his hair away.’

‘You did?’ said Daniel. ‘I still don’t understand.’

Jack grinned again. ‘Well, in short, Daniel, you nearly died again, and an ascended ghost wolf got very fond of you and wanted to adopt you and Shifu came and helped sort things out. I’ll explain everything once Janet has finished going over you with every doohickey she has.’

‘And that will be after you explain what Shifu is doing on base without you telling me about it and why he was making you fall asleep in the middle of our meeting,’ said General Hammond. ‘It’s good to see you back to normal Doctor Jackson.’

‘Ahh, thanks sir,’ said Daniel. ‘I … don’t remember not being back to normal in the first place. I just wish I understood all of this.’

‘Do you not recall our mission to PT9-339, Daniel Jackson? It had an intact pyramid that you described as larger than any pyramid on Earth,’ said Teal’c.

‘Yeah, and there were these ghost wolves,’ added Sam. ‘They took an interest in you, Daniel. We tried to fight back but they were literally like ghosts. There one moment and gone the next.’

Daniel shook his head slowly. ‘The last thing I remember was going to bed the night before we were supposed to go on that mission. Do you mean to tell me we’ve already been there and I’ve forgotten the entire experience?’

‘Yup, Danny-boy. Your memory is not what it used to be,’ said Jack.

Daniel frowned at him. Jack was still smiling widely. He didn’t think he’d ever seen Jack smile continuously for such a long time.

‘Colonel, we need to make some arrangements so that whatever ascended beings are here can go back through the Gate without interference,’ said Hammond. ‘I’ll also want a detailed report on these dream experiences of yours.’

‘Yes sir,’ said Jack. ‘And after this sir, if you don’t mind, I think me and my team could use a week off at my cabin. We need some stress free team time, and a chance to … talk some things over.’

General Hammond gave a quick scan of his premier team. Of them all Daniel Jackson was probably looking the least exhausted and run down of the group. ‘Granted Colonel, once Dr Frasier releases Doctor Jackson. Now, let’s get to work.’

Jack followed after General Hammond put popped his head around the door one more time before following the General. “It’s great to see you in one piece, Daniel.’

Daniel smiled and watched Jack walk away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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